Summary:
Clive Barker is a powerful visual artist and wordsmith, and nowhere is this more evident that in his incredible series for young adults, called Abarat.

Details or Sample:
In the first novel of this four-part Young Adult series, Clive Barker introduced us to Abarat, a world in a day, where time remains constant over 24 hours. Thus, on the island of Babilonium, it is always 6pm and the carnival never ends.

Abarat was slow going, since it set the scene and introduced many of the characters for barker’s new vision. But the second volume, Days of Magic, Nights of War, simply rattles along and is consequently a more enjoyable read.

In the first book, we are introduced to Candy Quackenbush, an abused, lonely misfit from Chickentown, the `most boring place in the world´. After running away from school, she meets John Mischief, an odd Abaratian with seven other heads - but this is in fact one of the least surprising creatures she will meet when she enters the land of Abarat. She falls foul of evildoer Christopher Carrion and is pursued by the deadly Cris Cross Man.

In the second book, we are still following the adventures of Candy, who is still being pursued by the Criss Cross Man through the archipelago of Abarat. Her nemesis and his master, Christopher Carrion, are the Emperor and Darth Vader of this saga, out to stop Candy destroying their plans to plunge Abarat into war and darkness. Just why and how she is the Chosen One to do this is not known, although we get a fairly hefty hint when Candy arrives at an enchanted castle.

Barker’s runaway creativity is given full rein in the Abarat series. There is an exhilarating sense of being hauled along with it, of adventure and incident and marvelous creative energy rushing past, like listening to a teller of tall tales spinning his yarns by the fireside. Yet we are in a world that Barker has created with its own mythos and structure – it’s just that the hard work of creation doesn’t show. By now, we should expect Barker’s writing to be effortless, and that is just how it looks here.

But what really sets the books of Abarat apart are the paintings – Barker has lavishly illustrated them himself and the whole tale is printed on glossy paper, so you feel you are reading an art book – or art novel, if you will. The paintings vary in quality from incredible images that reminiscent of Frida Kahlo and Van Gogh, to wildly funny monster sketches.

So integral are the paintings that Barker actually writes the text only after he has finished a painting. The paintings are arguably the most enjoyable part of the series, but now that Barker is in his stride, the text has definitely caught up and there is plenty more to come - Barker has said he is working on Books 3,4 and 5 of the series.

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Written by: Gail Kavanagh
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